West End Oval
Cropsey Avenue between Bay 19th Street and Bay 20th Street. Also known as Bath Beach Baseball Field. The Bath Beach Field Club played matches here in 1907, featuring such opponents as the Sterlings. This park was later home to the West Ends, a team founded in 1912 by Ernie Lindemann, previously the star pitcher for Ambrose Hussey's Ridgewoods. To accommodate the new team, grandstands and bleachers were built to seat 4,000 fans. The West Ends were generally successful, but they were trounced on the first day at West End Oval, 8 to 4 by the Pittsburg Giants. More than 500 fans "braved the rigors of a stiff wind from Gravesend Bay, and rooted enthusiastically from bleachers and grandstand." In the curtain raiser, the Trinity Travelers and Sirius tied, 2 runs apiece. The Edison Company moved its athletic activities to West End Oval in 1914, no doubt paying a good price for six days a week of field access for its interdepartmental baseball league. On August 8, the Commercial Department defeated the Purchasing Department 9 to 0, with pitcher Al Murphy setting an Edison League record of 20 strikeouts in the game, and giving up just a single hit. A week earlier, Murphy had twirled a no hitter for the Flatbush A.C. In September, 1914, the New York Giants scheduled an exhibition match at West End Oval against Billy Gilbert's All Stars. Charlie Ebbets protested, saying that this violated the Dodgers' territorial rights, and in any case the game was for money on a Sunday, which was illegal at the time. The game did not take place, and three people were arrested during the preliminary match for selling programs on the Sabbath. Glenmore A.C. was a long time tenant for footall and baseball, winning most of the time. In 1913, the Glenmores finished the baseball season with 34 victories, three ties, and three losses. Bay Ridge High School was also a tenant, as was New Utrecht High School after it was formed when Bay Ridge High split into boys and girls schools in 1916. Bay Ridge High beat St. James Academy 25 to 1 on the diamond in April, 1915 on the way to winning the PSAL championship of Brooklyn. On April 22, 1916, the reigning champions from New Utrecht High were humbled at West End Oval by Erasmus Hall pitcher Waite Hoyt, who twirled a no-hit game, allowing only a walk and and error by right fielder Davison in the first inning, and setting down every batter thereafter. He was, however, lucky to achieve the feat. Dutch Karlson of New Utrecht smashed a ball to deep center field, and raced all the way to second - without touching first base. Karlson was tagged out without recording a hit for his efforts. By 1926, when the city was leasing the space for use as a playground, owner Michael Neiman was looking for a larger payoff. He submitted a petition, with 2,000 signatures, to the Board of Estimate asking that the city buy West End Oval as a permanent playground site. Accusations soon surfaced, from those with signatures on the document, that the petition they had signed was an old one asking the city to convert property at Dyker Beach, already city owned, to a playground. The West End Oval was eventually sold for residential development instead.